Blogger Mendrys recently asked a question when I blogged yesterday about the new tiny Sony computer. His question is do I or does this site get paid from advertisers?
The answer is no. I have turned down quite a number of proposals for ads on this site since a lot of people around the world visit this site daily. I do not want this blog to be a commercial venture.
This blog is for chess fans around the world. I blog just about any topic that interests me and as you can see, quite a few topics interest me 🙂
I love chess and I like to follow chess news. That is why I try to bring everyone chess news from around the world as soon as I possibly can. This blog is my passion, not my job.
Thanks for the question.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
I read your chessblog everyday and I do like it when you talk also about different subjects and interests. Sometimes, walking away from the board helps to think. Thanks for this blog.
It didn’t even cross my mind that you are doing it for money. That should be obvious for everyone who is visiting your blog regularly.
Gabor
Susan, I’ve been the most casual of players for most of my life, playing perhaps a dozen games a year, winning against people who generally played even less, and fancying myself something of a chess player.
Then one evening I stumbled across your wonderful blog. Your love and enthusiasm for the game was instantly apparent and totally infectious. I began to follow your posts and study your puzzles, and before long I was hooked.
My chess-playing coworkers have begun to follow your blog as well, using my recently-resurrected chess links page to follow current events in the chess world. Essent and Elista were discussed around the office as excitedly as any other sporting event!
Since then I’ve also gotten my wife and my niece interested in studying the game. Both show natural talent, and while neither dreams of being a world champion, they have quite realistic dreams of beating me–or anyone else within reach.
Now we are waiting patiently for our 2½-year-old son to be ready to start learning. He already likes to move the “pieces” from square to square (especially the “horses”), and we already have your great SPF curriculum to help get us started in the right direction.
A million thanks, Susan! You have touched more lives than you’ll ever know. Please keep up doing what you’re doing, as long as you continue to love it.
Whew! I mean if you are going to get any advertising money, I would hope for better taste in computer manufacturers, such as Alienware, Apple, Dell, or Toshiba but pleeze NOT SONY!! =)
Good for you Susan it feels so good to do something without motive and just for the love of it…sometimes I see you still posting at 3.30am you work so hard… You only get that kind of energy from inner love to what you do.
For this we all admire and surport you
Now this is a little awkward but I am still posting it. I am sure you have all heard of Michael Richard’s racist rant . . . now the question I have is not so much about him (he has to fight his own demons) but about chess . . . isn’t it “unfair” that the white side is always the one making the first move. Shouldn’t be that Black and White both should be allowed the first move, one time each; so then the color would just mean we are opposites but not necessarily weaker. I suppose the white choice as first move in Chess has a history that does not come down to racism but its hard not to think of it. I mean the person making the second move would always be at a relative disadvantage but it would not always be black. Please be kind on the answer I mean no disrespect to the game or anyone.
anon,
Dell owns Alienware so it’s the same compay. How about VooDoo instead?
Sam in Lubbock says, please keep up this wonderful blog. The chess news is always very current and entertaining, with the puzzles and such; and it has the stamp of your interesting personality.
I read this blog since the WC Match.I found it just because it had information about that.
But it is nice,you can be informed of the chess news and many others, you can share what you think about many things.It is a open forum, free for everyone.
Thats why I visit the site everyday. Sometimes i write something,sometimes i just read but anyway i think this blog was needed.Yes,we are just people speaking with our own ideas from America,Europe,Australia…worldwide.But that is what we are alone.All together we are part of the chess voice.Never forget it.
Thanks for this forum Susan.Best wishes 🙂
ooh voodoo yes yes!! Drool!!!
Any other high end laptop suggestions?…
Sony is garbage. Their keyboards are kludge. Try doing anything serious on them every day and see how long they last. Not for heavy industrial and programming use…Had three and they all died within a year. Glad I didnt have to pay for the second two. I also worked on a Sony OS project that they outsourced to our company. Working with their development staff was a nightmare and brought down my respect for the quality of their products and software.
Doesnt look good for a near term laptop purchase though, as Vista and Leopard are coming out…I wait for the new models next year Just IMHO. But I do wish I had some more power =(
anonymous said…
“Shouldn’t be that Black and White both should be allowed the first move, one time each; so then the color would just mean we are opposites but not necessarily weaker. I suppose the white choice as first move in Chess has a history that does not come down to racism but its hard not to think of it.”
Anonymous, you aren’t the first novice to ask such a question. I assume you are a novice because most chess players never see the white & black chess pieces as analogous to “white” & “black” human beings.
The pieces are customarily white and black simply because no other shades contrast so perfectly. Also, the rule that one army always moves first greatly simplifies playing, recording and studying games. Whether black or white had been chosen was immaterial, but the choice, as they say, is truly ancient history.
If you still find yourself unable to play without thinking of skin tone, however, please consider that other interpretation? The balance pf a game of chess, though initially very slightly uneven, is more equal than in almost any other game. Both armies have identical pieces with identical powers and tactics. Neither side of the board is favored over the other, neither color square is more or less valuable. And the game’s “high ground” is in the exact center. No element of random chance gives the advantage to either side.
Also, if you are still seeing the game only in terms of a winner and a loser, consider this. While it is true that a game of chess is a battle, a struggle between evenly matched armies, at its heart it is actually a cooperative venture, a brilliant and graceful dance of two minds, souls and wills, expressed through the medium of the chessboard and culminating in a work of shared creativity which will likely never be duplicated. And beyond the board, remember that both players gain experience and wisdom from every well-played game, and the weaker player almost always receives the greater share.
How could chess better epitomize the ideals of human endeavor, fairness and justice, and remain a game? If it were any more beautiful it would be a sand painting.
Of course, you are always free to invent a chess variant which incorporates the rules you propose, but I’d wager that few if any chess players would switch, regardless of race, gender, age or political affiliation. Most of them are, as I am, very much in love.
Pardon me for waxing rhapsodic, anonymous, but I’ve become quite enamored with the game as I’m discovering much of its mystery and beauty for the first time. That probably shows.
This is what chess is all about…….just another thank you to show appreciation for all your hard work.
~Jimmie Beatty
‘anonymous’ posted at Tuesday, November 21, 2006 9:44:49 PM
{
The balance of a game of chess, though initially very slightly uneven, …
}
Not “slightly”. The current chess rules give White a big advantage. Statistics show White achieves at least 10% more wins than does Black!
A simple rule correction could eliminate this unfair advantage (by the pie rule).
In Tennis the server has a massive advantage over the receiver. But Tennis corrects this problem by have each meeting between two players consist of numerous alternating service games.
In a typical quad or Swiss chess tournament, there is no such alternating within any one meeting between two players.
FWIWorth, the famous Howard Staunton played at least one major chess match in the 1840’s in which the Black pieces made the first move (in 7 of 21 games, I read).
G
I support Hoddy’s post because I witnessed personally Susan writing new blogs in the wee hours of her time zone. No one of the ad-paid money slaves of ChessBase would do this.
Thanks for the clarification Susan. I was not trying to be accusatory but thought the entries look rather “commercial”
I never heard of a wad of bills being sent to “The Village” before!
Good post but…
… there is actually no problem on putting paid ads, nor its in contradiction to doing it with passion. I say get the ads money and donate it if you feel guilty about receiving it.
… and, of course, you should be clear on what is an ad and what is not, meaning no hidden ads in the posts, but a banner would be totally fine.
lantonov said…
~~
I support Hoddy’s post because I witnessed personally Susan writing new blogs in the wee hours of her time zone. No one of the ad-paid money slaves of ChessBase would do this.
~~
Or that evil Topalov who only plays for money. We agree on this.
Topalov is not evil
Evil is the person who slinks and throws mud from behind his anonymity.